Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has become Chang’s most noteworthy opponent. His new operating model will untie Intel and bring Intel and TSMC into a new game of competition and cooperation.
This year, the opponent that TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou is most concerned about is no longer Samsung Lee Jae-yong, but Intel CEO Henry Kissinger.
“Financial News” reported that TSMC Chairman Zhang Zhongmou publicly said: “Other companies will take advantage of geopolitical trends. Without globalization and free trade, competitors will use that advantage to defeat us. TSMC’s challenges in the next few years will be greater than The last few years have been at least as grim, maybe more so.”
The “other companies” mentioned by Zhang Zhongmou point to Intel. He believes that the current U.S. government and some customers are not switching orders because they are concerned about price costs. If the cost does not increase and ICs can be purchased from local U.S. factories, they will shift orders to U.S. wafer foundries. “This is Intel.” The advantages”. Zhang Zhongmou pointed out that Intel does not yet have a wafer foundry, “but they are highly encouraged by the US government.”
Transforming Intel, the Biden administration supports it
Zhang Zhongmou gave an example. In 2021, Biden gave his first State of the Union address after being elected. The focus was on the return of high-tech manufacturing to the United States. His “model” was not TSMC Liu Deyin, but Intel Kissinger. Zhang Zhongmou said that Kissinger and Mrs. Biden were sitting in the box on the second floor of Congress when Biden made the report. Biden introduced Kissinger to the entire Congress. “This is a great honor” and also represents the support of the US government.
What cannot be ignored is that the series of reforms promoted by Kissinger after taking office in 2021 are gradually improving Intel’s competitiveness.
The first is a breakthrough in the manufacturing process. “Financial News” reported that on Intel Innovation Day in September, Gelsinger showed off a series of breakthroughs in Intel’s process. After Intel launched the 14-nanometer process in 2014, it took eight years to launch the “Intel 7” 10-nanometer process processor. TSMC began shipping large quantities of chips using the 10nm process as early as early 2017, five years ahead of Intel.
Therefore, when Kissinger announced that he would advance the fifth-generation process within four years when he took office, the outside world thought it was too crazy. However, after he took office, in addition to the mass production of the 10-nanometer process, Intel’s first Intel 4 using extreme ultraviolet equipment manufacturing process by the end of this year The process (equivalent to TSMC’s 7nm) has been mass-produced in the Oregon factory. Meteor Lake processors using this process will be launched soon; Intel 3 process will be used in data centers, and processors codenamed Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids will be launched in the first half of 2024. Shipping.
▲ Zhang Zhongmou believes that TSMC is still ahead in key strategies, but he is also worried that Intel has the advantage of the US government’s support.
“Financial News” analyzes that semiconductors will next move from FINFET transistor structures to GAA (surround gate field effect transistors). Intel’s first 20A process using GAA transistors and back-side power supply design will be mass-produced next year. Kissinger said in September that the last node is the 18A process, which is close to finalizing the design and will be used by Panther Lake processors, with mass production scheduled for the second half of 2024.
Break through the manufacturing process and leverage EUV technology
The “A” in Intel’s process stands for angstroms, and 18A is 1.8 nanometers. Since TSMC will launch the 2nm process in 2025, does it mean that Intel will surpass TSMC? TSMC spokesperson Huang Renzhao said that the performance of TSMC’s N3P process next year will be “comparable” to Intel’s 18A, but the cost will be better; the 2nm process in 2025 will further widen the distance from competitors. This is also the first time that TSMC has directly responded to the process differences with Intel, expressing its confidence that it will continue to lead, but it also shows that the gap between Intel and Intel is shortening.
Kissinger said that Intel will not stop at the 18A process. By the end of the year, Intel’s Oregon plant will introduce the latest high numerical aperture EUV equipment and develop processes below 18A. He also said that Intel was too confident before and adopted EUV too late, resulting in the process being surpassed. Ironically, EUV is actually an exposure technology that Intel strongly supports in its development, and now Intel is quickly correcting its mistakes. “My Christmas gift this year is high numerical aperture EUV,” Kissinger said.
Faced with Intel’s rush to catch up, Zhang Zhongmou believes that Intel’s key strategies are still lagging behind TSMC. “Indeed, if you ask customers, if Intel has good services, catches up with technology, has high yields, and the price is the same, (customers have to place an order with Intel) OK , but I don’t think it will all happen.” But he admitted that “there is this shadow.”
“Financial News” also discovered that in addition to process breakthroughs, Kissinger also vigorously reorganized the company. Intel is the only large-scale IDM company that designs and manufactures ICs at the same time. In the past, the industry’s evaluation of Intel was that its IC design capabilities were first-rate, but its manufacturing capabilities slowed down the IC design department’s ability to produce products. This left the IC design department with only backward processes available. Watch your competitors steal market share.
The original expectation from the outside world was that Intel would spin off its IC manufacturing department and focus on IC design, which it is good at. In this way, Intel’s IC design department would be revalued like AMD, and its stock price would increase more than ten times. However, Kissinger pointed out in an exclusive interview at the end of October that he is reorganizing resources, “We now have two companies plus three satellite companies.” He explained the two companies, one is a top IC design company like Huida, and the other is like TSMC, a foundry that manufactures chips for customers such as Intel.
The “IDM 2.0” strategy will unleash Intel’s competitiveness, because the IC design department no longer needs to accommodate the manufacturing department. If there is a better wafer manufacturing supplier, Intel can also place an order for manufacturing.
In addition, the manufacturing department no longer needs to be constrained by Intel’s development of x86 architecture positioning, and can OEM products with different architectures such as ARM and RISC-V. Intel formed the UCIE Chip Alliance this year so that chips can be broken into several pieces according to standards and manufactured by different companies.
Reorganize resources and regain competitiveness
This year Intel will release the Meteor Lake processor, which US media believes is the first processor to cooperate with TSMC. “Financial News” reported that in addition to the core computing unit of the new processor, it is still manufactured by Intel. The AI computing unit and input/output unit in the processor are reportedly manufactured by TSMC. In this way, Intel can produce a large number of products with a smaller capacity, taking advantage of TSMC’s competitiveness to reduce costs while protecting its key capabilities in manufacturing processors.
But Intel’s foundry will compete directly with TSMC. In addition to recently inviting Taiwanese media to visit Intel packaging plants in Malaysia, Intel said that it can take advanced packaging orders and vigorously grab orders when advanced packaging production capacity is lacking. During the third quarter meeting, Kissinger said that three large customers have promised to place orders for the 18A process to produce ICs, but did not disclose the customer list. Intel has also continued to accumulate IP partners, established a foundry ecosystem, and rapidly strengthened the important foundation for the development of foundry.
TSMC’s wafer foundry model innovation has significantly weakened the IDM camp, and Intel is the only large IDM to survive. Now Kissinger is using the IDM 2.0 strategy to respond to Chang’s wafer foundry model. How TSMC creates new value and deals with Intel’s attack will be another more exciting game.
(This article is written by financial news Reprinted with permission; source of the first picture: Science and Technology News)
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2023-11-11 01:32:53
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